i love this game. i really do. the one drawback i would like to warn people about is that it becomes too easy to just go online and trade with people. it becomes more of a competition as to who gets the upgrades the quickest. it is very easy to get drawn into the online trading. there were people who had just started the game who were begging for items that aren't available til the 3rd year, etc.

i will pick it up again one day and try it without the online stuff constantly.

that said, it is a beautiful version of HM.

@thomas
cheers (slipping you a flask...)

i passed up the wii version, don't remember why. i am so stoked for this on the 3ds! i love donkey kong country games!

i have to agree with others here who have said that this article makes little sense as to actual skills gained from gaming being used in rl.

the main skill kids can gain from video gaming is hand/eye coordination. that one has been proved and is an actual skill as opposed to being open to selling your personal info.

coming in 2014: 'Lego Sex and the City' edition.

guys: proselytizing for either side in this debate is a no no. religion has come into this discussion, but religious views are better expressed elsewhere.

i give up. saying 'exactly' when someone disagrees vehemently is ridiculous. on another forum, i would be freer to say what i want, but this is not the place.

there are none so blind as they who will not see. what one sees as a good thing, another sees as sacrilege.

this discussion has probably strayed way too far from the gaming interests and will be shut down anyway. it probably should be.

@TrueWiiMaster

you want it both ways: the government having nothing to do with religion, but religion given the right to do whatever with government.

it does not work that way. i haven't spoken with jefferson et al lately so i don't pretend to speak for them. but as most were deists but not christian, i doubt they would fail to protect government from religion.

you say 'religion is at the very foundation of many people's worldviews'. i would add that many things feed into that, including one's self identity and their sexualty. these are things that makes us who we are. you define marriage in a very narrow definition. that may not fit with many people, but that doesn't matter to you. you want to set the rules and be the decider.

i never voted in that election.

@JonWahlgren

looks as if you may have gotten a wee bit of animal crossing karma there, lad!

look: instead of trying to rule the minions with blatant abuse, turn yourself into an AC Mogul: sell whatever you find, fish and sell the suckers, make the big $ and live the high life! that will give jealousy a chance to do what you cannot thru hole digging.

@TrueWiiMaster
And separation of Church and State is not supposed to be freedom from religion. It's just supposed to be the government keeping its nose out of religion (which it hasn't done very well). Unless America were a purely atheistic nation, it would be impossible to keep traditional religion out of the government anyway. Many people in the government are religious, after all, and you can't leave your faith at the door.

no. the separation of church and state is supposed to keep religion out of government. we have no 'state religion'.

people who are responsible for the running of our government are supposed to leave their faith at the door! their god, their religion should not impact the rest of the country. their beliefs are merely that: their beliefs. (it is surprising what many in government leave at the door: ethical behaviour, honesty, decency...seems as if leaving religion at the door isn't that big a thing.)

@8bitforever Sexual context and sexual preferences have no place in games. I don't agree with the Gay lifestyle but I also don't persecute those who practice it. My problem is getting everyone's sexual presence shoved in my face. That should be your own personal business. I don't want or need to know that someone is gay. In this generation it has become something you wear on you like a badge. It is just sad and stupid.

you may not persecute gays, but you just want them to shut up and stay in the back of the bus. that in itself is a sort of persecution: 'be gay if you chose (which is not how it works), but keep your gayness out of all things in your life so i am not offended'.

do you wear your heterosexuality like a badge? i don't, but it is reflected in my being married, how i am protected if my husband is hospitalised and i have full rights re: visitation, decisions, etc.

we can file taxes as a married couple, which has monetary advantages. if we discreetly kiss in public we are not mocked. if we hold hands we are not met with disgusted looks. some interpret gays doing the same things as 'shoving it in my face'.

you are right: it is sad. but it is not stupid. it is basic human rights. separate but equal has been tried in the past and it does not work.

@TrueWiiMaster
to be fair, very few hetero animals form long lasting relationships.

@TrueWiiMaster
And interracial relationships are a very different topic from homosexual relationships.

it wasn't always this way.

@RudyBelmont
This will piss off some people, but it will make a lot more happy, as Catholicism is a huge part of the world. I think everyone should have the same rights, and it's not up to the government, and certainly not a religion to decide that.

then who is it up to? do you think there would be no oppression if people were just allowed to denigrate those they disagreed with because they were in the majority? the separation between church and state is becoming blurred here in the states, and that is a bad thing, imo.

it is up to governments to protect the rights of all citizens.

there's a big, diverse world out there, guys. some of you have not yet been exposed to much of the world.

it takes work to put yourself in another's shoes and walk in them. it can be an expansive experience. believe it or not, some of you will change your attitude to some things as you grow older. some won't. tolerance is not innate: it is a choice.

very, very little in this world/life is black and white: the shades of grey are where life truly is.

is this a game that young kids are going to be playing?

@HeroponLuigi
This bug does more harm than good in fact in my opinion it does absolutely no good I am even offended that they added this feature but putting me aside some parents do not want their children thinking that same sex couples are normal or acceptable...

fixed that for you.

@SkywardLink98
as @tbd said above: gay men may use a surrogate for pregnancy.

@Damo

well, that escalated quickly.

@Optimist_Prime yep, i was mistaken. City Folk was, of course, on the Wii. i may have blocked it out because i was disappointed in it, lol.

@StarDust tbh, the game cube 'city folk' version of ac is my least favourite. it seemed as if it would open the world up a lot from other versions, but there really wasn't much new content. the city part was poorly done, imo.

i am soooo looking forward to ac:nl as i think they've really gotten it right this time. i have read spoilers, but they just make me want this game more and more.

i used to belong to an art site that decided absolutely no nudity was going to be allowed. i don't do many nudes/partial nudes, but i had to remove 2 pieces. one was voted 'most favourite' by an old poll i did on my own art site. it's called 'dancing neath the irish sea' and features a mermaid with celtic symbols. she is topless. the owners of the site told me i could pixelate her breasts. it would have ruined the piece. (it was an ACEO). i understood their new rules and wished them well but choose to leave.

grotesquely huge breasts on females in video games repel me: they are objectification at its worst. these are at least treating both sexes somewhat the same. do 2 wrongs make a right? i don't know.

i just want to play good games.

@Philip_J_Reed lol. my work here is done.

to be fair: chron's bum is neither well toned nor impressive. if it's weren't for the symbol it wouldn't be noticed.

fair enough, @creepingdeth21. as i said, i do not have all the facts in this and don't know who is in the wrong/right. whilst many suits are frivolous, not all are.

i just dislike seeing all the name calling and nastiness that seems to occur whenever anything goes against what many tend to blindly see as attacks on nintendo or any fav games.

'gets right up my nose' as mrs. slocombe used to say.

@creepingdeth21
did you bother to read any of @Hipster-Dashie's post? what do you think trademarks are for? to look pretty? they have a purpose.

i don't know if the scribblenauts are in the wrong or not, but there are legalities to this that need to be addressed. name calling of someone trying to protect their property doesn't add a damn thing to the discussion.

@evanescent_hero An internet meme and a highly valuable piece of intellectual property aren't in any way comparable. Copying a video game and selling it as your own isn't the same thing as dropping a piece of pop culture in a game for those who look.

an internet meme becomes one because of its popularity. it has nothing to do with how much work went into it. something either takes off or it doesn't.

are you the judge of what is intellectual property and how much value they have? was the meme created by someone or did it magically spring to life on its own? does popularity, which makes it part of pop culture, remove any ownership rights? is the meme trademarked? is the trademark being violated?

just because you see minimal value in something doesn't mean it has no value, especially to the artist who created it.

nintendo is very protective of its intellectual property, and rightly so. i am pretty sure 5th cell is protective of theirs. why is it wrong for this person to protect his trademarked creation?

it's not.

so when is the 3ds gonna be able to access the miiverse???

but....but...whenever y'all see a zelda or mario ripoff y'all start with the 'sue 'em! sue 'em'.

it's a goose/gander situation.

superb interview! looks very good at this point. i love how the developers dare to show the hero taking hits and getting a 'game over'. so many times we are shown perfect play instead of showing there is an element of difficulty to a game.

@imageform
i imagine it is hard to make any creative product these days that does not offend someone. unfortunately, by finding offense in everything, those things that are truly offensive and done with bad intent are not taken to task.

there will be screaming when someone forgets to put their Wii U in the boot and their windows get smashed as it is being stolen.

@KnightRider666
thanks for the video link. i am very tempted to give this one a shot. it looks like fun in short bursts...also looks like a 'throw my 3ds xl into the wall' sort of game.

Fantasy Life, anything Dragon Quest, and Ni No Kuni,

i don't care what anyone says: i cannot wait for this one. it looks amazing and the play will be amazing.

what nintendo and some posters here don't get is that many of the parents (and even grandparents) who are going to be the buyers of new hardware have been gamers for decades. or do you think gaming just sort of sprung up magically when you came of age to begin playing games?

parents didn't just buy the Wii for WiiSport or WiiFit: many of us bought it for the real games. being over 40 doesn't mean you suddenly want to use a balance board and stop playing good games.

who do you think has kept gaming alive all this time? what do you think the age of gamers from the early years is now?

when the Wii Want to Play adverts came out, my kids and i would talk about locking those 2 guys in the attic and stealing their Wii.

i don't think nintendo understands what US families are really like: their ads portray a '50s ideal that never really existed.

they also need to address the fact that many gamers interact more with on-line friends than those in rl. shoving the unrealistic portrayals of family down viewers throats are putting off many people, imho.

patience has never been my strong suit...i want this NOW!

ah, the wonderful wizard of woz!

some of us 3ds owners are ps3 owners. and wii owners.

anyway, i'd be on a 3ds version of ni no kuni like syrup on a waffle!

i have used the news and weather channels quite a bit; i'm a news junky. it was decent enough.

as @fortius54 says: nobody abandons systems faster (or more completely) than nintendo.

my contact at my local gamestoppo says this won't be released here in the states, as the original sold very poorly.

@icjman No self aware generic internet humour over here. Just inside jokes that we want people to be a part of.

inside jokes? with 99% of the internet being the in on the joke. right.

i got rid of swapnote a long time ago due to being overwhelmed by the number of notes some people send. don't know if it is worth trying again, tho multiple deleting is a big plus now.

@theblackdragon
excitement is good: we'll just pretend i didn't say anything...

$34.99 is the price on my grandson's pre-ordered copy from gamestoppo, which i did the last week of march. i am planning on downloading it for my 3ds xl.

cannot wait!

@Peach64

i've always interpreted the phrase 'i could care less' as being followed by a silent, implied 'but i can't be bothered'. it's a sarcastic idiom.

some of us do care about words; some of us love words and word play. the internet is oft times painful for those of us who do.

@BossBattles
It doesn't take "evidence" to know something.

this is a depressing thread.

@shinobi88
None of my posts have been to contradict what Pachter says in this article about the Wii U. I didn't even read much of what he said in the article. The only point of my two previous posts was to point out how much of a fake, pathetic loser he is.

so you are going to show us all what a 'fake, pathetic loser he is' by not taking the time to even read what he says.

sigh.

perhaps it is a not-too subtle push for us all to have to download games.

@BakaKnight

if there is one thing disney can never be accused of, it's putting heart before money. they will gild the lily so it looks like it, but money is their prime motivator. not saying it's right or wrong, it is just the way it is.

Seems like more and more articles are based on 'a neighbor of an un-named video game developer exec over heard said guy talking in his sleep about (insert game name)...discuss'.

We said we would talk again after the release when we'll have more time to decide where we're going next. We didn't discuss 3DS, Wii U or anything else, so it's just early discussions.

as much as this game intrigues me, it all feels quite tenuous at this time.